#she’s not being disingenuous but it’s how she understands humans are

[velvetjune]

I like how Jessica Preddy says Rose is not in love or infatuated with Alan, but it’s her third job, her life calling. the unstoppable President of the Alan Wake fan club, genuinely Alan’s strongest soldier. (Source: Remedy YouTube)

[pirateshelly]

One thing that really fascinates me about interview with the vampire (the show) is this sort of tension between power and powerlessness in all of the characters. Because it doesn't present becoming a vampire as something that just gives you power and magically makes you completely detached from all human concerns and struggles.

And that seems to be something Lestat does very much want to believe, and he's in enough of a position of privilege that he's able to convince himself it's true, and it's a fundamental area where he just cannot understand Louis because Louis CAN'T pretend even if he wants to. (And of course Lestat cannot ACTUALLY separate himself from "human troubles" the way he likes to think he can, he just has an easier time pretending than most). Because as much as becoming a vampire grants these characters supernatural power it doesn't just magically take away the very tangible human ways that they were previously vulnerable or powerless.

Becoming a vampire doesn't negate Louis' struggles with racism; in some ways it amplifies them with how he is alienated from his own family and community; his closest connection becomes Lestat. He loses his economic independence and becomes socially dependent on Lestat in a way he wasn't to anyone as a human because in some ways becoming a vampire made him MORE vulnerable, despite granting him physical strength/speed/etc. The promise of freedom in vampirism Lestat presents to Louis (that I do think he does genuinely mean, but "freedom" means very different things to Louis than it does to Lestat) is never fulfilled.

Likewise Claudia learns the hard way with Bruce and later with the coven that she may be a vampire but the world still looks at her and sees a vulnerable young black girl and that will always put her in danger.

Claudia rescues Madeleine then turns her into a vampire, but rather than protect her from future harm the "crime" of turning her becomes the very thing that gets her killed by yet another angry mob.

And 514 years as a vampire will never be enough for Armand to truly trust or believe in his own power. Because the first 200 or so years of his life he was literally never once allowed any agency at all over his own identity or his own body (child slave sold to a brothel, sold to an abusive master, captured and violently indoctrinated into a vampire cult for centuries). No amount of material strength and power is going to undo the psychological effects of that. (And I know some people like to read his frequently passive demeanor as simply manipulation and a way of catching people off guard (because how could someone so old and powerful possibly feel a genuine sense of fear/vulnerability/etc 🙄) but to me that's an incredibly disingenuous reading of him. But that's a different rant for another time!). Being a vampire does not save him from being horrifically abused, nor does it save him from the lasting emotional effects of that abuse.

And I think there's something interesting to be said about the way that, in order to survive safely, they have to feed on the most vulnerable members of society (people undesirable and therefore least likely to arouse suspicion) in order to go unnoticed. If they want to live they have to prey on those vulnerable in possibly the same ways they themselves once were (and in many ways still are).

There's a frequent argument I dislike that we shouldn't be viewing any of these characters through too human of a lense because they're literal monsters (to be honest it's an argument I see most often made when people simply don't want to talk about the show's complex depiction of racism/misogyny/abuse/etc and used to dismiss those as issues "too human" to be relevant to a story about a bunch of monsters with a supposedly alien sense of morality), but I think the show itself makes a huge argument that for these characters there is no escaping or separating themselves from the very human struggles and vulnerabilities that marked them before they ever became vampires. It's like a sort deconstructed power fantasy.

[cerastes]

What's your take on MumuDoc in Lonetrail?

Muelsyse in Lone Trail felt, in many ways, like seeing someone diving in a pool, and at first, you're not alarmed. They know how to swim. You don't really think much of it. But then a minute passes, and they are still underwater. Concern sinks in, and you make your way to the pool, and as you're about to jump in, their head surfaces, they are back up. They cough, they tough it out, and are a bit nervous about diving again, but you're going in the pool with them now, and they feel more at ease.

Take this, intensify it a hundredfold, stretch it a hundredfold, and scrutinize it a hundredfold, and you end up with Muelsyse, in her barest form, like a diamond born from a chunk of charcoal that had too much pressure put on it.

I can see Muelsyse's dynamic with Doctor being romantic. I can see Muelsyse's dynamic with Doctor not being romantic. Both are fine interpretations, if you ask me, I mean, her theme song is very much a love song, and at the same time, she feels desperate to find anyone who can just... Empathize in even the slightest of ways to her. Either read is fine, outright discounting either feels a tad disingenuous.

Alienation. Complete and utter alienation, an edge sharper and more injurious than isolation. This is, if you ask me, the main theme surrounding the Rhine Lab arc and cast.

Saria is alienated. She cannot find common ground with anyone else around her for the longest time. She used to have a shared dream with Kristen, but that bridge has burned and frozen and turned to ash all over. Kristen is alienated. She simply cannot see a point to anything except that obsessive doggedly persistent dream of hers, and it has been weighted more important than her humanity. Joyce is alienated. Forever a partial prisoner in her own head, there are few and far between that will ever put up with the unique intricacies of having to deal with someone that talks like her, has sudden Oripathy attacks like her, and falls asleep on the spot seemingly at random like her, fully cognizant of how high maintenance she can be on others. Ho'olheyak is alienated. On borrowed time, without kin or friend to call her own, living for a transcending mission far bigger than her and so, so small in the overarching beats of a world that can't be bothered to stop for her. Silence. Ifrit. Dorothy. Tin Man. I could go on. Alienated, all of them. Not isolated, because isolation would imply the lack of physical company. This is far colder, far darker. It's alienation. It's seeing the other side of the cliff, and no possibility of a bridge to connect it to your end of the cliff. Isolation stings, it's a pain you know is there. Alienation drowns, because you can see the surface, but you are convinced you'll never make it there, and it's a hundredfold worse.

Muelsyse is no different. Muelsyse is alienated, and goodness she has tried and tried and tried, she swims so, so hard to reach the surface, but she can't reach it. Being in Rhine Labs necessarily means you need to resort to some cutthroat cloak and dagger, it becomes routine, all for an ultimate goal, but is that ultimate goal even possible? With every step taken by Muelsyse, it seems two new steps materialized at the end of the staircase. Everyone she's met, for years now, has either been someone looking to use her, or someone she can use for her own advantage. Usually simultaneously. And it's in this context, when the 9 to 5 becomes tricking, blackmailing, snuffing and silencing that by chance, she comes across someone, possibly the sole person, that can actually understand the sheer weight on her shoulders: Doctor, someone who doesn't own their own past, but is shackled by it, someone who has no one to relate to, someone surrounded by sufficiently similar but ultimately infinitely different people to themselves, someone who by all means should be drowning in the same pool as her, but somehow, this person reached the surface. It's very easy to see why she'd become so utterly fascinated by this person, who shares many similarities with her, and yet, who seemingly has it so good, has it so sweet. It could have easily been jealousy, but end of the day, Muelsyse IS a sweet person. Yeah, she plays it up, always so cheerful and whimsical, but end of the day, Muelsyse is playing up something that is already there in the first place. Instead of jealousy, it brought her happiness, because maybe, just maybe, she could enjoy a bit of that je ne sais quoi that Doctor seems to have in spades and she is completely bankrupt of.

The first interactions between Muelsyse and Doctor are telling of this overwhelming rush of emotion: Muelsyse less talks with Doctor and more talks at them. She vomits words, emotion, whimsy, as if trying to put these emotions into words and actions after so long, emotions that was ready to never need to put into words in the first place. It eventually becomes a dialogue between two parties, but Muelsyse's interactions with Doctor are initially extremely one-sided, and they remain one-sided to some degree even moving forward. It was heartwrenching to me, honestly, to see the sheer joy Muelsyse radiated while around Doctor, because that is an almost manic amount of joy simply from possibly finding someone that gets it. Muelsyse has not had a bridge in so, so long, and suddenly, the finds someone that not only resembles her a lot, but also seems to have bridges in spades. Muelsyse and Doctor's dynamic should never be considered in a vacuum just between the two of them: One of the first things Muelsyse saw with her own eyes was that Doctor had a pretty friendly relationship, mutual respect included, with Saria. That, is immediately very telling of Doctor, given that Muelsyse understands exactly how difficult that is. We also know Muelsyse sneaks around Rhodes Island and chats with Ifrit now and then, and Ifrit also expressly has a very high opinion of Doctor. It simply makes sense that Muelsyse would feel as enthusiastic about her Dorothy's Vision brush with Doc, and all that Lone Trail entailed: It's terribly sad, because they don't even know each other, and even then, it's the shiniest ray of hope for herself that Muelsyse has had the chance to bask in: Doctor's essence, Doctor's existence, in and of itself, is a massive beacon of hope for Muelsyse.

And it's so damn sad, that this perfect stranger is the most familiar comrade she'll ever find.

Is this romantic love? Hell, the molotov cocktail of emotions involved might as well be, either now or in potentially in the future. Is it something unhealthily dependent? Yeah... Yeah. It might just be the euphoria of knowing that she can reach the surface, after all, that bridges, too, are possible for her to have, with not underlying motive, with no ulterior motive, without needing to offer something or to extract something. To put in the most basic of terms, Doctor, to Muelsyse, might as well represent the very first person in who knows how long that she can relate to at all. It is an immensely sad emotional starvation, and she finally found something to sink her teeth onto.

This is personal, but the way Muelsyse struck me, it felt to me that when she had even the barest of handles on Doctor, she related to someone for the first time in forever, and it shook her to her very core. It may have been the first time she saw, in someone else, a potentially happy Muelsyse.

It's extremely bittersweet. If you've ever dealt with alienation, think back on the first time you found someone who truly "got you". Add to that the fact that her routine of interacting with people had become to see others as tools, and to always be on the lookout for those wishing to use and expend you as a tool. Then, add to that that there are definitely more Elves, but Muelsyse is so fundamentally different to them that the sheer differences in temperament and culture make it so it's impossible for her to relate to them anyway. What could be lonelier than that? It's called Lone Trail for a reason, because alienation is a main theme for all of these people.

In finding the sole person that could possibly relate to her in circumstance and temperament, it's easy to see where Muelsyse's interest in Doctor comes from. Whether you interpret it as romantic or otherwise, it can't be denied that this immensely strong interest exists. It comes from finally seeing a way to reach the surface after the world told her for decades that she simply could only drown. Because Doctor is the only other person that could understand her in being the last of their race and in having no past and maybe even no future, and yet, Doctor having so many bridges, while she has none. I think Muelsyse craves companionship, not necessarily romantic, from Doctor, and, this is important, also wants to have what they have, and be part of it, of so many bridges built without ulterior motives.

[julieverne]

Okay so

Maura Isles would never have gotten rid of Bass.

In season 1 we see him in the first and last episodes. She's so worried about him that she takes his heavy ass to work instead of leaving him with his usual sitter. She shields his body with hers (from memory) and he saves her life (she'd have been found if she wasn't crouching to check on her tortoise).

She calls him buddy. She calls him sweetie.

He's her only friend prior to season 1, where Jane and Maura start tentatively friending. He's a misunderstood stand in for her own psyche, for her own maladjusted attempts to fit into society.

She's had him since he was a baby. They grew up together; they both appear to be in their thirties. She's had him for life.

An aside here; I have a bird nearly my own age that I've had for fifteen years. I am disabled and considering giving her up for her sake but finding her a home is difficult because she hates other birds, and fostering her out is hard because people keep carnivores and she also hates men. Recently she started self-canabalising due to my heath condition reducing the amount of time I could spend with her. But I know how much work she is, and how hard it is to find someone who gives parrots the amount of attention they crave. I love her, and if I could give her to a good home I would consider it for her sake. But for mine? Her sweet fluffy face floofing out in scratch anticipation, her little chicken chuckles and honks and sneezes, her little beak taps on my arm before she clambours up it - these fill my days and I would be bereft without her. I suffer, when I travel, because I keep my heart in that bird.

So the insinuation in Jan Nash's season 5 of Rizzoli and Isles that Maura has sufficient human contact and no longer needs her lifetime companion is just rude, on behalf of both Maura and fans of the show.

The assumption that Bass, a house tortoise, with one/two caretakers (the sitter and Angela would also be familiar to him) would adjust to being in a zoo - okay, fine, Maura's working hours are terrible and she's never home, and she's not the most affectionate person with anyone but Jane and sometimes Jo, but to insinuate that simply because he's not a mammal that he has no feelings or routine - that shoving a tortoise into a muddy puddle and not talking to him - is an appropriate way to treat an animal that has been a family member for three decades - is disingenuous.

As for Maura allowing it to happen? She's settled in Boston, she has a permanent house guest that is familiar with him, and she's not the kind of cruel person to abandon something she loves on a whim. The only reason she'd have given him up - and this should have been mentioned in canon - was that he was having behavioural issues, from hormonal to boredom, that he was too large for Maura to safely handle - he's a hecking chonk even at the start - or that something about her home was found to be damaging to tortoise habitation (backed by several sources and cited in professional scientific articles).

Maura loves fiercely and often. She feels abandoned - by her birth and adoptive parents, and Bass was there to see her through, on the nights Jane wasn't there.

Considering Bass was only seen in three episodes of the show (Pilot, When the Gun Goes Bang Bang Bang, Killer in High Heels), the production cost would have been nil if they'd never had him onscreen again. Jo was also only in a handful of episodes, and dog actors are expensive, but dogs don't live as long, so they could have written her out any way other than 'we found her owners after Jane spent five long years bachelor bonding with her dog', but Jane's the kind to give up on people and things, so it's not as hurtful.

Maura has internalised her octracisation by society and harboured it in a tortoise. People don't understand tortoises. She too is misunderstood, so she vibes with Bass on a surface level, but after so many years, he deserved better than 'the zoo'.

Anyway that's my mini Bass thesis I'm tired.

And I added some pictures because he's actually very cute.

There's a thing about people who aren't neurotypical; we bond with things the average person considers ugly, emotionless or cumbersome, because we're often considered those things. Maura sees herself, the outcast Queen of the Dead, in Bass. And being abandoned herself, she would never abandon him.

[snownorites]

Some disjointed thoughts on Sua and her sister that I had yesterday cause I've seen some people on twt being really adamant that Sua was in the "loved before anakt" category and I don't think that's what the point of Heavenly Garden is personally

For one, I don’t think she's actually looking out for Sua here. (using WhataFruit's translation)

I think her intention was to make Sua feel bad about herself. The word choice is extremely deliberate: "you're so unkempt" "that is unseemly" "you're already dumb enough as it is". That last one is obvious but those first two I think are super important to understanding the kind of competitive environment "being" a doll must have fostered. She's trying to put Sua "in her place" here and make her feel like she doesn't actually deserve any of the favouritism Nigeh gives her because she's "stupid" and can't even play her part properly.

And Sua has every reason to believe what her sister tells her. Outside of her cruelty she's so nice, so gentle, she even plays with her and tickles her. Ofc Sua would assume that she has the best intentions and to me that's the point of why her sister acts that way. It's not about affection or love really, it's something closer to bullying. This way every insult, every instance of belittling however small stays with her and hurts her. Her pity of Sua may be "genuine" but it seems to be more mocking? Saying that she loved Sua to me feels a bit like buying into the performance.

The framing of the comic to me is also very interesting because the contrast between Mizi and Sua's sister is telling us that we need to consider their affects on Sua in relation with each other. Sua did not feel loved before she met Mizi.

Her saying this is supposed to show that her sister was all she ever knew in terms of human connection. "Back then" as in before meeting Mizi.

Sua thinks that her sister was actually the pitiful one all along but something really interesting is that it's not because she finally found self worth or because she knows that her sister was wrong about her being unkempt or "stupid", it goes right back to love. Her sister is pitiful because she didn't know love.

That heavenly garden, Mizi, loving and being loved. If Sua felt love before anakt I don't really see why it'd be framed like this.

And the thing is that love is a super big theme in Alien Stage. You could very well argue that this is just how her sister shows love and since we don't have her pov the way that we do Io's or Ivan's there's absolutely no way to refute that the same way there's no way to prove that. But to me including Sua in the same category as Mizi and now Till feels really disingenuous. Mizi and Till felt loved before anakt and carried forward that love in all their actions. Sua did not and her actions reflect that.

I think that Sua's feelings of self hatred are a pretty important thing to also consider when analysing anything to do with her (and I'll probably have to do a seperate post about that because this is already so fucking long lmao) People don't pay enough attention to this and how a lot of it comes from the bullying she experienced

Before Mizi, Sua was objectified by everyone around her, humans and segyein alike. And maybe her sister was different and we'll see that in another comic but to me heavenly garden's intention is to reinforce that this bullying wasn't just the very overt kind that's shown above. Like with the new Till comic, all the material we get builds onto each other, Heavenly Garden gives context to just how sinister the bullying was.

And I don't say all this to say that people are wrong about her sister potentially loving her, maybe she did, but Sua did not feel loved or experience that love. It's weird that I'm seeing more justification and rationalisation of her sister's behaviour than people actually taking Sua's narrative into consideration and trying to understand how her sister fits into it.

[wilcze-kudly]

What do you think of this?

https://www.tumblr.com/rifari2037/761435740681928704?source=share

Oh wow that's a lot of points. And it looks like the OP is living the cottagecore dream judging by all the cherrypicking and strawman building they're doing! Though I do think they make some good points, or at least they have the spirit. It's clear they're passionate about their ship and they want to defend it, which is understandable. I don't want this to come off as shading some random shipper, because I can respect their dedication and the gathering of references, even if they present points rather disingenuously and their use of references is incorrect.

1.

In their first point, OP calls upon the very obvious reference of La Pietà, particularly Michelangelo's statue of it, as basis of their opinion that Katara is presented as Aang's mother.

Now, Pietà is actually a term used to reference anything related to Mary mourning Jesus's death, so there are multiple statues and pieces of art depicting that biblical scene, however the most famous, and most refrenced one, is Michelangelo's statue, so much so that it had become synonymous with it.

While yes, the most obvious and straightforward interpretation of Pietà is a mother grieving her son, there are many other interpretations of it in fiction and art, due to how ancient the concept is.

One very obvious connection to be made is the similarity of Aang and Jesus. While atla is primarily based around non Christian media, the concept of a 'deity in a human body/human touched by god' suffering and dying to save humanity is hardly a novel concept. It just so happens that the Christian mythos is the most widespread iteration of this theme, with plenty of art and themes to reference.

La Pietà symbolises the death of a saviour, the destruction of a godlike deity by misguided humans. It shows us this deity's first and truest believer grieving their death.

The utilisation of a refrence to Jesus is also a nice reference to Aang's future revival, because that is also what happened to Jesus. The theme of rebirth is surprisingly prevalent in references to Pietà.

It's actually very interesting that this scene refrences Michelangelo's sculpture in particular, since one of the bigger controversies surrounding the statue at its time is how young Mary looked, much too young to be the mother of a 33 year old Jesus. Many believe that this depiction is meant to showcase Mary's purity, and some believe that this was a refrence to Dante's Divine Comedy, particularly a passage where Dante highlights not only Mary's role as Jesus' mother, but also her role as God's daughter and the spouse of the Holy Spirit (the Holy Trinity be weird like that). Presenting her as the pinnacle of human virtue.

This is an interesting angle, because (even though this concept eludes a large chunk of the fandom) Katara is young. She is a child. And she's also pretty damn virtuous. Throughout the show, Katara is compassionate, determined, hopeful, strong and a myriad of other things. She is who keeps the Gaang going in the Desert, she is the one who saves Aang, she shows compassion to the people of the Fire Nation. She represents and embodies the goodness and hope of humanity in a way many female characters can't.

If we're gonna refrence the Bible, we can compare Kataang to the Holy Spirit being so taken by Mary's virtue, to the point where an aspect of it becomes human like her, by her.

(Does this make Bumi II Jesus? Maybe)

Boiling this reference down to "momther" seems like a disservice to Katara, because Mary represents a whole lot more than just that too. Or maybe I'm just an ex Catholic from Poland which is like the seed of the Cult of Mary.Now, don't get me wrong, many of the aspects of Mary's story do have some icky undertones, but the concept of her in Christian mythos and in popculture has evolved extremely.

It's also important to note that atla isn't unique in referencing La Pietà, even for romantic couples. The statue was quite a big infulence on art, even without its symbolism, to the point where it's sometimes heralded as the start of a short time period named the High Renaissance (which sounds much more fun than it actually was. Alas, no weed in late 15th century Italy.) Many media used it as a shorthand for grief, loss and sorrow, utilising many different pairings. Yes, even romantic.

What, are we gonna say that the Batman and the Joker had a mother/son relationship now?

Pietà means 'pity' or 'compassion' in Italian and I think this perfectly sums up the essence of the theme, particularly in modern art. It is meant to invoke the viewer's compassion, our pity, our sorrow.

And the scene where Katara, a 14 year old child caught in a war, cradles the dead body of Aang, another child, who is burdened with the weight of being a godlike saviour, should evoke pity, should it not?

Also Op references that one interview where Bryke say that Kataang is like having a crush on a babysitter, which, if anyone has the link to the full interview, I'd appreciate it, because I wanna have the full context before I make a call. It could be a clumsy explanation of a trope, it could be taken out of context, etc. Op does not provide enough of the material for me to formulate a proper opinion.

2.

Op's second point is that they believe that Kataang anti's claim that Katara never had romantic feelings for Zuko and that Katara was like a sister to him. They provide the scene of Katara examining Zuko's scar as evidence of potential romantic feelings from Katara's side. As they say, it is unusual for Katara to inspect a wound so closely before proceeding to heal it. Now, I don't think Katara had any regular water with her in the catacombs, which may be an explanation.

And when we see Katara usually heal, it's because someone is dying/freshly wounded. Like you don't have to poke around in the bleeding lightning hole in Aang's back to go: huh maybe this needs medical attention. And in the cases of her using healing to reverse Jet's brainwashing there really wasn't anything to inspect.

Now as a professional burn scar haver, I can say that, especially in the first few years, a lot of doctors inspected my many scars by physical touch. This is, from my understanding (do forgive me for not remembering I was like a toddler) is to assess the damage to the skin, whether or not certain glands are working properly and regulating the skin, etc.

ButI guess next time I go to the dermatologist to have my scars examined and they inspect the burn on my hand they're actually tryna hold hands romantically. Good to know. I'm gonna get railed by so many doctors. 🥳

Another reason for Katara stalling could be because... well, she did bond with Zuko, but he still does have a history of being bad™️. Like as kind as girlie is, there probably was a bit of a "should I really use all my super special magic water on the guy who tried to kill me like a few months ago?" type of questioning there.

I believe the creators also mentioned that Katara did experiments on the spirit water and determined that it only works on people with a strong spiritual connection, so she may be pondering if the water would even work.

As for Zuko and Katara being sibling coded, I think it stems from Katara and Azula obviously being foils and the very blatant juxtaposition of the Fire Nation Royal Family and that of Katara and Sokka's.

These two families have very obvious similarities and their dynamics are often used as foils.

So it isn't a leap for people to put forth the idea that Katara embodies everything Zuko wanted Azula to be as a sister and longs to have the relationship Sokka and Katara want.

We don't see much of Katara and Zuko's interactions after they make up, but we do occasionally see her poking fun at him, not unlike she does with Sokka, but that is just an observation. The gaang banter between each other a lot. But the ending to the Last Agni Kai, where Katara literally heals the damage Azula made to Zuko also does solidify this point, at least symbolically.

3.

The Op claims that another anti Zutara take is that Zuko and Katara's elements do not mix and can't work well together, and prove it to be false by showing how well Zuko and Katara work in combat situations. And you know what? They have a point there! Zuko and Katara are very capable together and they are honestly incredibly fun to watch when they team up!

....and then OP slides their way into the false eqivalence fallacy, which is a habit they seem to pick up especially for the last 2 points.

OP brings up the 2023 film Elemental, to back up their point, however, instead of utilising the comparison of tropes, they substitute their point with simply describing the plot of the movie and making loose allusions to zutara as a ship.

When bringing up references, it's best to pick out common tropes/storylines/themes. For example, they picked out the symbolism of fire and water, which is an excellent first step. However, then they proceed to describe an event where the characters of the movie touch, creating steam, which, if they want to make this comparison, they need to connect somehow to Zutara.

I assume they wanted to imply that Zuko and Katara could also create something new by working together? However, they'd have to explain this comparison, because one of the predominant themes of Katara and Zuko's relationship is healing the old. The idea of healing Zuko's scar, the attempt at retribution for Kya, Zuko and Katara healing their relationship being symbolic of them healing the great pain the Fire Nation caused to the Water Tribe, etc.

Im not saying this comparison can't be made, I just want OP to elaborate because they just yeeted vague concepts at us and expected us to extrapolate.

Where the theme of creating something new lays more with Zuko and Aang's relationship, as Zuko describes in his coronation speech if I'm not mistaken.

I think Op could've pulled this comparison off if they'd gone more in depth, because there certainly is a proper comparison to be made. (I assume. I haven't watched Elemental. Op just presented their point poorly. They could've just lied to me I just want them to at least lie well).

4.

In the last point, OP attempts to debunk the claim that Zuko and Katara have no chemistry. And once again, I agree with them! I think Zuko and Katara have very good onscreen chemistry. Their banter is fun to watch, they work well in action scenes and their emotional scenes always hit pretty hard for me.

Whether or not this chemistry is romantic chemistry or not is left up to interpretation. Because when we talk about chemistry between characters, it can refer to things other than romance. It's, in generalisation, something that makes us care (for good or bad reasons) about a relationship between characters. For example, Katara has good chemistry with Sokka and Toph. But it isn't necessarily romantic chemistry (though I am a big Katoph truther).

Now the term chemistry has been mainly taken over by romance because we can't have nice things, so I don't blame OP for looking at this rather nebulous concept purely through the lense of romance.

Side note, I think OP mixed up IRL romantic chemistry and the different types on onscreen chemistry when pulling up a definition, but that's beside the point. But I'd perfer thek to specify exactly which type of chemistry they mean, like are we talking 'weird pickup artist chemistry' or 'these characters make me feel something chemistry'.

However, I think OP once again presents a very lacklustre example of this chemistry and utilises false equivalency to prove their point.

Instead of bringing up Zuko and Katara's actual chemistry, OP utilises a different movie as a crutch. They compare the ending of the movie Tangled, where Flynn Rider is injured and later healed by Rapunzel to the admittedly very similar scene of the last Agni Kai.

Where I can see where they're attempting to go with this, they're trying to point out romantic tropes that could be applied to Zuko and Katara's relationship, they kinda miss the mark?

They bring up a narrative, when the point is meant to be about chemistry. Where a good narrative and storyline can enhance chemistry, romantic chemistry is often more about character interactions.

As I pointed out previously, Zuko and Katara do have chemistry as characters. Whrm pointing this chemistry out, utilise the many similarities and mild differences of their ideals and personalities, point out where these differences clash and where their similarities intersect. Dissect their interactions, how they influence each other.

It may not force the reader to consider romance as much as building your argument around an established romantic couple like Flynn and Rapunzel would, but it will present your points genuinely and allow readers to slowly come around to your points instead of forcing the conclusion on them.

Going "oh pair A did this, and pair B did this too. Pair A is a romantic couple, therefore pair B is also a romantic couple" is literally comparing apples and oranges and proves very little.

I see what OP is trying to do and I appreciate the effort, and even agree with some of their points, to an extent. I would also like to know where they got a lot of these ideas about what zutara antis think because it doesn't really add up with what I have seen from this side of the fandom, but maybe I'm just not as invested as I used to be in the ship wars.

I also don't want to send any harassment towards OP, please.

From just reading their post, they seem rather young and other than the first point, their post consists purely of just pointing out tropes they enjoy and applying those tropes to a ship they like. Yes, they presented their points kinda clumsily but they were simply expressing their preferences and opinions.

Where they presented some of their points in a manner that was a bit disingenuous and leading, this is also not a crime. And I don't think they wanted to intentionally mislead people, just express their own thoughts without going too in depth with them. Which is fine too, we're all just screaming into the void here on tumblr.

As arguments for Zutara go, tqhis si probably the least egregious I've seen in a while. It's benign, just someone talking about their preferences and not being used to presebting their arguments in this form.

[dilfsonic]

Okay so, unpopular take that applies specifically to my Service Animal AU: Shadow and Maria are not siblings/“sibling coded.”

If you’ve read the notes on the original lore post describing them, you probably already know what I mean. While they can and will have moments of inspired ‘sibling’ like love for each other, that’s simply too disingenuous a way to describe them. They’re so much more. They’re each other’s only friend, they’re charge and ward, they can mimic the attitudes of siblings but never fully understand them, they have no romantic interests (until sonic shows up) and so mimic certain attitudes in that way with each other as well. But all of these are mere approximations and mimicry without fully encompassing any of those relationships. Shadow’s “affections” can be easily misconstrued for holding more weight than they actually are intended, as gestures such as hand holding/cuddling/purring are all utilitarian expressions meant to ease Maria’s physical discomfort or anxiety in accordance to his job as her service animal. Nothing more, nothing less. Maria knows this, but others can and do easily make their own assumptions.

I’ve been a little nervous to express this interpretation as I feel it can be really easily misunderstood, and I don’t want to give people the idea that even the immensely “”romantic”” or affectionate gestures or affiliations applied to them are actually meant to be shippy. Their love is an all encompassing one, and to call it sibling-like or romantic are both incorrect, as they’re neither. Ultimately applying any real world label to this au will be incorrect and a little too extreme in either direction; the closest possible relationship that may most accurately describe them is that between a service dog and their owner, if such a service dog was as intellectually capable of their human.

They’re what you get when you’re the only two people in your whole world. They’re what you get when you pair together someone who’s indebted to the other for their existence, which goes both ways. And by normal relationship standards, I would disagree to consider it a ‘healthy’ dynamic, but it also cannot be judged by the milestones of what a normal and healthy dynamic even looks like.

Shadow is nothing without her (in his own mind), and this lends itself to an inability to conceptualize a ‘self’ to even express. Maria hates how Shadow views himself — a tool, a trained dog, a guard, a companion of necessity — but she also can’t avoid using him accordingly. That means having no choice but to treat him not as a person, but as her crutch. Shadow is little aware of her internal struggle with the dehumanization of him because they communicate this almost never. Nor does he mind being dehumanized, he has never been a ‘person’ since the day he was created anyway.

Maria would love nothing more than to call Shadow a little brother, her best friend, someone who she could’ve had take her to prom because nobody at her school wanted to indulge the sickly child, nor did anyone even know her well enough considering she spent most of her time out of school than in it. She’d love to call Shadow these normal things, but she can’t. Not yet at least. Sonic will slowly change them and the way they can view friendship and the world and what it means to belong to each other, but it’s hard work on Shadow and Maria’s part.

They are something that can’t be easily defined, because it’s complex, and messy, and while there are bright moments of wonder and joy, is also overwhelmingly dark in its implications, and they can feel utterly alone even when standing right next to each other. Shadow owes Maria everything, and Maria owes Shadow everything, but each underestimates the full gravity of how their own existence touches and expands the other. They consider themselves worthless compared to the other, and that’s what gets in the way of them truly being able to open their hearts to each other. The way Sonic later teaches them HOW to open their hearts.

So yeah. I hope this concept of blurring the lines doesn’t scare too many folks, but this is based on my personal interpretation of how I feel a continued existence between them in canon or a canon adjacent world might have been like. I know it’s easy and delightful to see em like wholesome siblings — which is also an interpretation I wholeheartedly endorse and adore, particularly the way my bud @ratrrriot draws them (please go follow them if you don’t already, their shadow and maria artwork is to die for!) — but this is just a slightly different and admittedly darker take on them that I hope won’t ruffle too many feathers. Sibling coded relationships between characters are so wonderful, but in this case doesn’t feel satisfying or like it can possibly cover the scope of them for this particular au. I dislike labeling them or comparing them to another dynamic, like Sonic and Tails who are very explicitly brotherly with one another.

I may make a separate post on Sonic’s impact in this world and how he touches the lives of Shadow and Maria, Helen (when she comes along), and this world’s version of Robotnik (Julian) if people are interested in that. I take a lot of inspiration from his characterization in the Adventure games and Sonic X for this AU, as he’s most closely canon-aligned compared to Shadow and Maria who are a little different; though I’m gonna try my best to fit their “canon” personalities into a completely different scenario. Such as, Shadow lacks the innate hatred he has for mankind as he never loses Maria, but he will retain the “my body is a tool” mentality and the general uncaring of others opinions of him, etc.

[liquidorcard]

Could we maybe get an analysis on her “stop making villains like Magneto, they suck” video?

Also, I for one am sat patiently for that Flowers In The Attic analysis.

FItA Lorch Analysis coming next.

For right now: Part 3, Final round. FIGHT!

[Part 1] [Part 2]

Lily Commits Elder Gay Mutant Abuse, feat. "Eldritch Lily" (Part 3)

8:30: "And making these characters hop in the giant death robot so they can randomly do some heinous act of evil so you feel less guilty for wanting to bring them down is very telling about your priorities as a writer." [We're still talking about Korra, for context.]

I'm highlighting this quote more than anything as a means to really dig into the big stink with Lily's media analysis here. I've said something along the lines of, "I kind of agree with her, but not actually," several times while writing this, and this is exactly why.

I think a lot of people come at media criticism from a very flawed position because of the way the grading works in our school systems, of all things. They judge it like there is the possibility of getting an A+ on your show, movie, novel, video game, etc. For the purpose of reviews, as a quick way to indicate quality/how much you recommend a piece of media, I understand why critics would use scoring systems like that-- but when it comes to analysis, that's not really a useful approach. There are technical skills and proficiencies in execution that you can grade media on like that, but even they have their nuances. Conceptual ideas presented in media, however? No dice.

There are certain filmmakers in particular who I fully acknowledged are very skilled at their craft-- I still strongly dislike their films. I don't agree with the conceptual ideas they have to present, and I don't think they convincingly rationalize their position textually, subtextually, or otherwise. With that said: I think most media produced, regardless of quality, is a net positive for the intellectual landscape of humanity as a whole. With the exception of media that is actively harmful in a very direct way, disingenuous propaganda, or particularly egregious cases of cooperate slop, I support any creative's ability to add to the long-form conversation art and creation offers. Those highly proficient filmmakers I ideologically disagree with, their ability to articulate their worldview so genuinely, and clearly helped me as a creative articulate why I disagree.

With all that said, it's clear Lily doesn't think in that regard. Lily has taken media crit she has heard from other sources. She has just retrofitted it to whichever property she wants to rip into. If it superficially applies enough that she can misrepresent a piece of fiction with an argument, she will apply it across the broad. Approaching media crit like there is a definitive way to "score" fiction on its conceptual value, like it's a high schooler's end of term essay. Context be damned.

What she is articulating here is a valid criticism of certain fictions that try to present morally complex villains. This is a complaint I've made myself over properties like the first Black Panther film (which, thankfully, they at least did their best to rectify in the second). But not Kuvira. Not Magneto as a whole.

9:07: "Which would have been interesting, and led to some criticism of the main characters for trying to restore the same monarchy that has previously failed the people."

They weren't trying to restore the monarchy. They were protecting the prince from assassination. I feel like it'd be pretty tyrannical of the Avatar to say, "fuck you Earth Kingdom, you don't get your royal family anymore," without their say, Lily . . .

9:18: "Maybe talk about the United Republic being a literal concurred settler state."

YET AGAIN LILY'S CRITICISM BOILS DOWN TO, "I HAVE NEVER READ A COMIC."

9:30: [Lily takes like, the 12th bullshit pot shot at the creators of Avatar.]

I've ignored it up until this point. There's been too much else to talk about. But Lily has assumed an absurd amount about the authorial intent of everyone she's discussed in this video-- including Jack Kurby's intent when creating Magneto.

9:40: Lily fumbles through some final point here with two sentences that make no sense when put together about how this is all people doing tropes badly, but if you did it well then the trope wouldn't exist and aaaaaaaaaaaaa.

God please strike me down.

10:10: Lily calls this all propaganda.

Again. She's sort of right in the abstract, divorced from the content of her video. Wrong when taken in context of what she's talking about. SOMETIMES "sympathetic villains" are used as political propaganda. Sometimes, they're a legitimate expression of a creator's misunderstanding or mischaracterization of an ideology. Sometimes, they're an earnest dissection of the ideological concept.

Good argument of specific pieces of media, retrofitted, flattened of any nuance, used to discredit a thing Lily doesn't like across the board.

We're in a timeloop.

10:25:

God is dead and we have killed him.

11:01: "The problem is that this idea of all villainy being nuanced and complicated has just never really been true. Evil people in real life will often just invent justification for evil things they already want to do. And there's a point where someone crosses the line of evil so much that nothing they say earns them sympathy."

Lily thinks people commit acts of extreme violence and atrocity for . . . Fun, I guess. Disturbingly enough, this tracks real well with how she's justified her own abhorrent actions in the past. When other people do bad things, it's because they like it and are bad. When she does a bad thing, she has a reason, and therefore, it's justified. Another self-tell Lillian.

11:42: "The problem with my idea for these kinds of villains is that they inherently make white people of any gender uncomfortable."

GOD FINALLY FUCKING DONE THIS GOD FORSAKEN VIDEO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Pray for me, the fucking psychic damage I just fucking took for you guys.

I suppose the only take away here is this:

The thing that's so exhausting about Lily's videos is the complexity of the degrees in which she is wrong. She's developed, for lack of a better word, a talent for laundering good arguments in a very disingenuous fashion. I wouldn't go so far as to call what she does plagiarism. Her work is more than just stealing other people's arguments and regurgitating them back-- but what she does is a spiritual cousin of sorts.

She bootlegs intellectualism to sharpen it into a shiv she can use to stab at anything that displeases her. The same way she weaponizes her marginalized identity, she weaponizes honest and thoughtful media analysis aswell.

This video was, frankly, barely even about Magneto. Barely even about sympathetic villains. She has no interest in the material that was the topic of this video-- not even enough to do a bare-bones Google search beyond looking up vague facts she could massage into supporting her claims.

A lot of those very early X-Men comics are fucking rough. They include shit like Charles expressing some very creepy thoughts about a (I believe then) teenage Gene Grey. Some very yikes dynamics with the then mostly/arguably entirely white mutants acting out very on-the-nose imagery associated at the time with the black liberation movement. And some very questionable framing and dynamics due to the fact that, real life marginalized groups typically don't have dangerous superpowers.

However, you can almost sense the moment when Kurby started to take the reigns and make the X-Men into something really special. Not to imply that Stan Lee is a bigot or a bad writer, he had very good intentions. By his own admission, he did his best work as a collaboration with his artists guiding the story along with him (sometimes, well, functionally being the actual writer, no offense, Lee left a bit of a complicated legacy, we can't get into it right now.) Anyone familiar with Kurby's work as a whole will know just how profoundly humanist he was with the stories he told.

Despite what Lily arrogantly implied here, he always intended Erik to be a very sympathetic character. Even as a "villain," a sympathetic character vaguely coded as an "extremist" black activist was kind of bold for the 1960s. I can't tell you for certain what ol' Jack's authorial intent was, the man very rudely died 3 years before I was born so I never really got the chance to ask him-- but dare I say this was his best attempt at laundering the idea that maybe "radical" activists actually maybe had a point? To an audience who would have been VERY against that idea if presented to them outright at the time? Even now?

Media does have the power to shift cultural perception-- even if that takes time. In the early 2000s, when I was taught about Malcome X for the first time as a child, even then, 40-some-odd-years later he was presented to me in a negative light. It was in the context of him being the inspiration for Magneto, however. The emotional connection I had to that character made me question whether that characterization of Malcome was entirely fair-- even though I was too young and didn't have the full context to grasp what I was being told at the time. I do believe to some extent that Magneto's popculture relevance has helped preserve the legacy of some of the more controversial activists in history. By being a figure people can personally connect with. Of course, it's all more complicated and messy than I'm making it sound, however. It's unfortunately very easy to flanderize figures of history, boil down their motives, and flatten their narratives. A character in a story, detached from any direct sociopolitical baggage, is something you can form a bond with. Something that can (if handled properly) promote empathy for their real-life equivalents.

There absolutely is a conversation to be had about certain ideologies or positions being more often than not, for practical or political purposes, cast in the antagonistic role in fiction. However, Lily's thesis here, boiled down to the bones, has been disproven ten times over by the abject failure of shit like The Comic's Code Authority and The Hays Code. People don't emotionally connect with squeaky clean moral paragons as much as they do messy, complicated, emotionally challenging complex characters-- even when you paint them as the abject villain of the story.

People fucking adore Magneto. He's a cultural icon. Even before the FoX-Men movies came out, he was probably one of the few comicbook characters your mom could name. Vaguely recognize, at the least. And yes, that doesn't always translate into people being charitable to "radical" civil rights activists in real life-- but doesn't necessarily harm it either. Anecdotally, it helps, if but just a smidgen.

Anyway, get fucked Lily. Magnet Daddy FTW.

P.S. X-Men '97 is really good. Also, it's 100% alluding to these two having fucked. Maybe outright confirmed it by now, I'm not totally caught up.

I mean, we all already knew they totally were lovers, but.

Come on Disney, give the people what they want. Make 'em kiss. These poor old men have been having sexual tension for like, 60 years.

[bardicious]

Spock's SNW Human-isms (Apparently an Essay)

This has gotta be one of my favorite parts of the episode. Everyone's already talked about Boimler's polite way of telling Chapel her and Spock's relationship is doomed and not worthy of note in the history books. Versus Spock and Kirk's legendary friendship romance T'hy'la status.

I am on the one hand, upset that Spirk will never be fully canon (because paramount is weak and so are it's homophobic fans), but delighted they're not really banking on the easy "Chapel was Spock's true love all along" because that would be fuckin disingenuous as hell, if you've watched ANY TOS episode or movie. Like, absolutely ridiculous. Beyond insane, and I can understand why it worries fans watching SNW. (though I think the reaction to them having any relationship is a bit much and childish).

Anyway, seeing Spock's early life and his fight between his supposed "human side" and "vulcan side" is such a big aspect of his early character. I get the impression that Spock fought hard to be Vulcan while he was growing up there, but held resentment to not being able to show his mother the "human" affection he thought she deserved. He saw her being ridiculed, her loneliness, his own loneliness when he couldn't fit in, and it broke his heart. A war between his emotions and his duties constantly firing. So enough is enough, he leaves Vulcan, because it's not right for him. And joins starfleet.

Starfleet's motto is accepting all kinds of people and understanding them. But lets be real, starfleet accepts Spock's skill, but not his personality or behaviors. He generally gets along with his crewmembers, but they don't really know him. Barring a few exceptions, maybe Captain Pike? But also not really. Captain Pike loves Spock, but my impression is he doesn't always get him. Not like Jim will.

Chapel gives the same vibes. She says she accepts Spock for who he is. But she likes the idea of the human!Spock inside of him. His human side who understood her better. Who, honestly, I think she would have kept if she was less ethical. But she's not. She's a good person, and that's not who Spock is, so it's not what she wants. But it's still this ideal of Spock she's grasping to. Of course, she doesn't want a more human Spock, that's a cruel thing to say, to think even. But ultimately Spock will never given her the behavior and emotional support she's looking for. It's just not there.

My impression of SNW Spock is that, he likes both T'Pring and Chapel, they're his friends, he loves them like a friend would, he protects them like a friend would. But both Chapel and T'Pring personify his human and vulcan ideals. They're the embodiment of what he should want. Not what he actually wants.

And once Chapel breaks his heart (possibly to "save" his amazing future), he will discard his attempts at "human" behavior. Begin to resent it. Hell, get a little racist with it. LMAO (Thinking of his interactions with McCoy - who's so human, or so willing to show his emotions, it irks Spock, because he tried that!)

It will be the crux of his feelings of shame. With Jim. Who's friendship and love is so important to him. But he just can't do it again. Quite possibly, maybe he should never try to love anyone again, because he's tried, and both options were so obviously wrong. How can he possibly fit in with another being?

But he can, because Jim's actually quite a vulcan human in some ways. Duty is the name of Jim's game. The greater good. The way Jim has decided to look at his own life and his family, and decided to take his experiences in a logical capacity rather than the emotional one Sam has taken everything in. Spock and Kirk are compatible, so naturally, that Spock and Kirk never had to try, they just know each other and understand each other. AND damn, everything about SNW just confirms Spirk, but I wish ffs, that they would "canonize" it.

[pumpumdemsugah]

I'm extremely bothered by the way I've seen other Black women talk about misogynoir and Megan Thee Stallion. Some of you are acting like her body is all those ugly things and not that she's targeted because society has pinned those things to her. I feel like some Black women are at the point where they believe the race science about Black women's bodies and it's because many of you are misogynist. I don't see this racist behaviour towards Black men when people are being racist about their bodies. You understand it's a racist smear campaign to justify police brutality but the gendered version happens to Black women some of you are so close to saying Black women are hypersexual big darkies.

People seem to understand that when a Black boy or man is shot by police, they focus on his body to invoke racist rationalisation not because he was any of those things and often they lie. Some of you are so hyper focused on Femininity you're making up shit with regards to Black history. The whites were arguing if we even counted as people, them thinking we're not proper women was because of the idea of the uncivilised Black savage, not because of genuine gender confusion. The uncivilised needed them to enslave us for our own good. How have we marginalised the role of slavery in how Black women are seen because you want to be disingenuous about the nature of how and why Black women are masculised to make a vague statement that won't scare the whites ?

Women that are hypersexualised aren't treated with kindness or dignity, they're seen as public property that doesn't have the right to complain about anything, which is the way Black women are seen. Many of you have decoupled misogyny and racism when talking about Black women and it's crazy. Do you like yourselves?

Even though the likes of Taylor Swift is taller than Megan, people talk about her like that because she's a curvy tall sexual woman that's a part of a group of women ( Black women ) that are hypersexualised because of the legacy of mass rape during slavery and the sexual abuse of Black women after. Let's recentre that

Slave masters argued that Black people could not feel pain and used that as the basis to experiment on enslaved Black women by cutting them open without anaesthetic and cracking the heads of Black babies open. What part of, they want to abuse us are some people not getting ? I don't think some people really understand what the word dehumanisation means. The hyper-visibility of Blackness means we get targeted, not because we are big Black animals. Some feel like big Black animals and desperately want to normalise your self loathing as a quality of Blackness

Find self respect and focus less on getting attention on social media. I'm sick and tired of seeing slavery and gender brought up in the same sentence only to watch people use buzzwords to say Black people are built big and scary and not talk about white supremacy, the mass rape of enslaved Black women...fucking anything that will make the white people you want to pay attention to you feel bad so you stretch " doesn't fit eurocentric gender norms" as a stand in the fact you internalised race science about your own body and want to drag all Black women into your self hatred instead of learning to see being a black woman as a fundamentally normal way human beings exist.

Talk about yourself and other Black women like people not political props to project self loathing onto

[shiikiyun]

Futa Kajiyama and Remorse

by someone that would hit him in the head if they had the chance

The discussion over whether Futa's shown remorse over his actions is genuine or not is something that has existed for years at this point, and it'll probably always be a debate. Just thought I'd give my personal take on it.

Starting off by saying that it is very ironic that a huge part of the discussion on his character and crime is how genuine he is when he admits fault, considering his case is entirely related to social media, almost like how when public figures online mess up and everyone else picks apart their apologies and rate the sincerity of them (not saying it's a bad thing, influencers will explode before handing a good apology, i just thought it was funny to point out). That aside, let me actually talk about him.

First, what did he do? In short, he began a witch-hunt campaign and doxxed a middle-schooler over a claim with no basis that said kid tried to reason with him over and he ignored, (pressumably) pushing her to suicide. Fucked up. Very understandable unforgiven veredict in the first trial, since his denial of his actions was so strong, he had it coming for sure.

Now, his feelings around his crime. It's said a lot that he doesn't feel sorry for his victim, that he only feels anxious and "guilty" because he's facing consequences and he's scared of dying, so he'll do anything to avoid that (so; admit fault, even if he doesn't believe he was wrong). And he is stubborn, so it's not crazy to see it that way, but—

Does he really not care?

From the way I see it, Futa is telling the truth when he says he never intended her to die. Personally, I would "should've thought about it twice then?" 'd him if I could, but I can't in good faith call him disingenuous for saying he didn't want it to end that way.

People don't take their actions on social media seriously. This happens all the time. People will say they most cruel things to strangers over minimal disagreements, and they don't consider it to be that damaging because "it's just social media". Futa is no different than that.

He got a power trip from the praise he received after he called out a teacher for sexual harrassment (which is obviously an actually fair reason to dunk on someone), took it too far over something mundane, and it actually had real life consequences on an innocent person. And he knows this. He's always known. The very moment he realizes what he did is when he's horrified of himself and is visibly shocked— He didn't want this. But he did it, and now there's blood on his hands.

To call that reaction disingenuous, or relate those feelings solely to the fact that he's facing consequences now, is completely ignoring that it happens before he's aware about receiving backlash from his friends.

That's where his anxiety comes from. He's always known he fucked up awfully. When ES insists on him being a murderer, what makes him stutter and show fear is that same word. He's a murderer, and he can't cope with that, but he knows what he did no matter how much he denies it. From the very beginning all Futa has been is a coward; unable to accept that his actions killed someone until he gets some sense literally beat up on him.

Now, this is where I drift onto something even more people might disagree with, but personally I think it's intentional. The representation of his victim, in both MVs.

Because Futa saw no difference between her and other people him and his friendgroup judged, firstly, she's shown as a videogame monster. Her silhouette changes to a more human-like one when he realizes she died, but that's about it. It shows more of his attempt at dettaching from what he did, refusing to see things for what they are.

But then Backdraft came and totally changed that.

I have to bring up the other 2 monsters to make my point clearer. Like I said, in Jihen Joutou, Futa pictures all of his targets as monsters. In Backdraft, the first 2 remain the same style, but Killcheroy changes.

isn't she adorable, by the way?

Unlike the other two, she's a completely different art style. Cartoony, cute, childish. Because Futa finally got to a point where he can't separate his actions from himself anymore, and had to recognize to have played part in her death, we see his victim for what she is—

A middle schooler.

Of course, her straight up appearing would've been enough to convey that, but the addition of making her character different (innocent, friendly, harmless) further shows how Futa does recognize that he hurt a child that ultimately wasn't doing anything wrong.

And, lastly, and this is entirely personal and where even More people might not agree: I just don't he's lying. I don't think he's trying to manipulate anyone into thinking he feels remorse just to get relief. I believe him when he says he knows what he did was wrong and he regrets doing it, that he wouldn't do it again. And I also understand (and agree) when he says ES, and us by extent, are doing the same.

People in the fandom like to act like he's crazy in the head (hyperbole) for saying that, that he is entirely saying it to guilt ES into forgiving him, and it honestly exhausts me. So like, hey, I'm not Futa, I'm part of the audience and I've voted. So let me say it: We are in fact the same.

He is not wrong in believing it. The MILGRAM system only abuses people under the excuse of giving justice and punishment to those that deserve it regardless of the degree of their crime— And I'm not talking about Kotoko. The psychological torture all 10 of these people are going through is not fair, not on the most forgivable one, nor the least. It is just an abusive system. This system killed people, some of which were teenagers, for having a troubled life. How is that any different from him?

Now I just said we are the same for the dramatism— Of course we are not the same on the basis that we are not actually hurting real people, but like, this fictional character doesn't have a conscience. By MILGRAM canon we really are just a bunch of people getting entertainment from 10 troubled people getting tortured. And as for ES, them continuing to partake on their role when they saw the extreme consequences it has just because they were told to do it is... Yeah, can you really blame any of the prisoners for thinking the guard is also in the wrong?

Ultimately, to conclude: I don't think Futa feels no remorse, nor do I think he only feels bad because he got consequences for it, and I don't understand this point of view. He's shown distress over his actions before backlash came his way, and right now he's at a point where he can't ignore that he fucked up and he will admit to it just fine. He is just simultaneously (and rightfully) upset that a fucked up system that does the same if not worse is the one that gets to decide whether he should be forgiven or not, because in all honesty, none of the prisoners deserve to be judged by MILGRAM.

Aaanyhow, that is it for me. I wrote this in a delirious state from sickness so I hope it's readable and coherent. Peace

Note: i know its implied es attempted to stop the trials and it didnt work, i dont think theyre evil and entirely on a power trip... please dont misunderstand the bit i talk abt es as me saying theyre evil and entirely on a power trip thank you

[cursedvibes]

It always annoys me when people treat this as Kenjaku having no motivation or their motivation being basically the same as Sukuna's. As if they are a completely blank slate besides that. The Yuki fight alone showed us that there is more to it, as well as the few times we saw them afterwards.

So first of all, I don't think curiosity is a bad motivation. To keep on living to experience more, find out more about the world, understand how it works, try out what has never been tried before, learn about people and humanity and the things invisible to us, that's a pretty significant goal I think. Without people with motivations like that, there would be no progress, no research, no scientists. We'd just sit in a cave until we die (basically what Tengen was doing until recently). Kenjaku is just a character who pushes this natural curiosity to the extreme. I understand that not everyone loves mad scientists as much as I do, but to call this "nothing" is disingenuous.

The other thing is, while we have not gotten a full reveal of their backstory, it's not like we know nothing about them and what drives them. The key here is Tengen. If we know more about their relationship, we will also learn more about Kenjaku. She's their friend, their polar opposite in so many ways (light/dark, old/young, order/chaos, tradition/progress, etc), and she's the key to Kenjaku reaching their goal. Only by elevating her, destroying her personhood and their friendship are they able to fulfil their curiosity. They have to sacrifice her to get what they claimed in front of Choso they want (and we already know they lied to him in other regards).

This is just fun?

This is Kenjaku just trolling around Joker-style with no other motivation?

They got Tengen, they are getting closer and closer to what they say they want, but they don't seem satisfied. They claim to not care about her, look down on her, but still try to talk to her and get her attention. Maybe they wanted her to complete their greatest experiment with them, maybe they wanted her to evolve out of her own free will, but due to her nature/personality both is impossible. That is the stuff we would have to find out in a flashback.

Either way, I don't think this makes them a simple or uninteresting character just solely based on what we got so far. What they say and how they act doesn't always align, even moreso when it concerns their true feelings (just look at how they treat Yuuji and how they talk about him). They claim to not care about anything aside from progress and entertainment and yet they dedicated 1000 years towards a vendetta against Tengen and seem almost disappointed when they get what they want. Curiosity is their driving force and an integral part of their character, especially their interest in humans and cursed energy, but I don't think that's all. That interest and curiosity didn't come from nothing. They're not being entirely honest with themselves.

It will be interesting to see the merger and their reaction to it. Will they actually be satisfied? Will it be as exciting as they hoped (probably not)? And I think a proper conversation and confrontation between them and Yuuji will help unravel both their characters a little more. Yuuji will have to face his past, his family and the source of all his suffering (without Kenjaku Sukuna wouldn't even be around to torment him). Kenjaku is again put before the question if their success, progress and plans are more important or their child (child because pregancy/reproduction/offspring has often been a central part of their character and so far they always chose their selfish goals). In this case I could see both being fulfilled. They said things born from them (生まれる) can't exceed their own potential, but Yuuji and/or the merger curse might prove them wrong.

[focsle]

Were there folks back in the whaling days who objected to whaling on moral grounds? Or is this a much more recent thing?

It was rare, but there were some! It was very much a fringe objection, though as whaling was so much a part of the country's energy consumption and so many products were connected to it. There were people who warned that whales were a waning resource, but it wasn't exactly a moral objection to killing them. I always think about the baleen - plastic connection. Just as folks maybe try to reduce plastic consumption today, it's still unavoidably a part of everything--perhaps someone wouldn't want their corset busks and boning or umbrellas or storage boxes to be made out of whalebone, but it still was.

One way to get a sense of the cultural attitudes towards whaling in the 19th century was the cognitive dissonance when it comes to Quakers dominated the whaling industry in the beginning of the era. A core of nonviolence, but exceptions made for whales. I think that's an interesting way at looking at how whaling was considered as a whole.

Still, there were some people who, if not objecting, at least approached it in a kind of complicated way. Foremasthand William Stetson on the bark Arab, 1855, is someone whose whaling descriptions I sometimes have a hard time getting through because he often humanizes them in ways I haven't seen many other whalemen do. Calling them poor fellows, reflecting on and understanding the pain they're in, understanding what it means emotionally for a cow to consider her calf in danger and why she behaves the way she does, etc. But still, he ultimately wants them dead. He's ultimately excited to lower for them. Because that's his livelihood. But also does seem to highlight a more sympathetic understanding about how brutal his work is.

Melville is also interesting as a (brief) whaler, weaving his ideas of both the Nobility of Whalemen and the Nobility of Whales together, and he mused on the fate of whales beneath man's warfare upon them.

"But still another enquiry remains; one often agitated by the more recondite Nantucketers. Whether owing to the almost omniscient look-outs at the mast-heads of the whale-ships, now penetrating even through Behring’s straits, and into the remotest secret drawers and lockers of the world; and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along all continental coasts; the moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc; whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff"

Like Stetson, he approached whales with a curious sympathy and understanding of their circumstance, but still was a whaler at his heart.

There were (inferior quality) substitutes for whale oil, such as lard oil, and one whaling newspaper once brought in a moral argument (albeit a rather disingenuous snarky one) about killing for oil, and which was more 'humane'.

This was reprinted from the Nantucket Inquirer in the Whaleman's Shipping List, May 2nd, 1843.

“We cannot help expressing our joy at this state of things [lard being considered inferior to whale], in behalf, we will not say of suffering manhood, but of afflicted swinehood, that so many of its porcine tribes are to be saved from a sudden, and (to them) inscrutable death. If it is replied that the getting of sperm oil is also attended by the cruelty and the taking of innocent life, we shall immediately annihilate the objector by showing that where the hardy whaleman takes one life the hog-butcher takes a hundred; for one decent sized whale will afford more oil than a whole drove of swine. So it will be seen that in advocating the slaughter of whales in preference to the slaughter of swine, we go for the greatest good of the greatest number—a principle at once highly human and “splendidly democratic”

But there is one exceptional article written in 1850 which is much more akin to attitudes about whaling today. This was published anonymously (which could perhaps speak to the unpopularity of the idea that someone was shy to put their name to it), in a Quaker magazine called 'The Friend'. They write on the industry from the perspective of a bowhead whale.

"Editors note: All attempts to discover the means by which this communication reached our office will doubtless be vain. Should it become known, it might lead to serious consequences! We are somewhat surprised that a member of the whale-family should condescend to make his appeal through our columns, inasmuch as we have ever aimed to direct whalemen to the best cruising grounds. We feel honored by the compliment, and shall feel bound on no consideration to betray the confidence thus reposed in us: —

A Polar Whale’s Appeal Anadir Sea, North Pacific The second Year of Trouble

MR EDITOR,—In behalf of my species, allow an inhabitant of this sea, to make an appeal through your columns to the friends of the whale in general. A few of the knowing old inhabitants of this sea have recently held a meeting to consult respecting our safety, and in some way or other, if possible, to avert the doom that seems to await all of the whale Genus throughout the world, including the Sperm, Right, and Polar whales. Although our situation, and that of our neighbors in the Arctic is remote from our enemy’s country, yet we have been knowing to the progress of affairs in the Japan and Ochotsk seas, the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and all the other “whaling grounds”.

We have imagined that we were safe in these cold regions; but no; within these last two years a furious attack has been made upon us, an attack more deadly and bloody than any of our race ever experienced in any part of the world. I scorn to speak of the cruelty that has been practiced by our blood-thirsty enemies, armed with harpoon and lance; no age or sex has been spared. Multitudes of our species (the Polar) have been murdered in “cold” blood. Our enemies have wondered at our mild and inoffensive conduct; we have heard them cry, “there she blows” and our hearts have quailed as we saw their glittering steel reflecting the sun beams, and realized that in a few moments our life-blood oozing out, would discolor the briny deep in which we have gamboled for scores of years.

We have never been trained to contend with a race of warriors, who sail in large three masted vessels, on the sterns of which we have read “New Bedford”, “Sag Harbor”, “New London”. Our battles have hitherto been with simple Indians in their skin canoes. We have heard of the desperate encounters between these whale killing monsters and our brethren the Right whales on the North-west coast. Some from that quarter have taken shelter in the quiet bays of our sea, others of the spermeciti species form Japan, have also visited us and reported their battles and disasters; they have told us it is no use to contend with the Nortons, the Tabers, the Coffins, the Coxs, the Smiths, the Halseys, and the other families of whale-killers. We Polar whales are a quiet inoffensive race, desirous of life and peace, but, alas, we fear our doom is sealed; we have heard the threat that in one season more we shall all be “cut up” and “tried out”. Is there no redress? I write in behalf of my butchered and dying species. I appeal to the friends of the whole race of whales. Must we all be murdered in cold blood? Must our race become extinct? Will no friends and allies rise and revenge our wrongs? Will our foes be allowed to prey upon us another year? We have heard of the power of the “Press”; pray give these few lines a place in your columns, and let the go forth to the world. I am known among our enemies as the “Bow-head”, but I belong to the Old Greenland family.

Yours till death, POLAR WHALE

P.S. I send this by the ——— of ——— Do’nt publish the name of the vessel. P.W.

[scenearcee]

I never even thought about the fact that I accidentally paralleled the Simulanka event in a NeuviFuri fic I wrote several months ago 😭😭

~~~~

“…This feels like torture. He has no use for me, he was a priority victim of my lies, and yet he continues to be a benevolent figure to me. I don’t understand, not one bit, why he sees anything in this shell of a human being that could have been…” Tears well in her eyelashes, falling down her masked cheeks. “I pretended to be the one thing he hated most for centuries, I played a false opera and danced across the stage as the people of Fontaine were dying. He condemned my sins in front of the entire nation, and yet he still seeks my favor. Is this my punishment? Is he doing this on purpose, disingenuously to toy with my mind? To give me reward, only to take it away once I feel peace?” A tidal wave of sobs ripples forth, as if an ocean during a thunderstorm. She clutches the tulle on the skirt of her gown, letting her feelings spill to the kind stranger standing before her, absorbing everything she has to say. The guilt in her eyes is overwhelming, agonizingly apologetic. “I’m a traitor. I deserve exile, and yet I am tortured instead. Sometimes, I wish that I died with Focalors, so I didn’t have to keep living like this.”

A painfully familiar sting bounces through Wanderer’s chest, and he puts his hand on her shoulder to both get her attention and steady himself. Visions of his past flashing through his mind- Irminsul, swords, electro energy coursing through his veins. His breathing is labored. “... No you don’t. I know you think you do… but you don’t. Like it or not, there’s people in Teyvat who treasure you, and they’ll be a pain in the ass until you turn yourself around.” His eyes lock with Furina’s, which are poised in shock and anxiety. “I tried to erase myself from Irminsul, I made an attempt to destroy my own existence, and it was mostly successful- until Lord Kusanali, Aether, and Paimon fought tooth and nail to make sure I was still kicking. As annoying as it may have seemed, these people went to great lengths to give me a good life, and you aren’t any different. Your god went to great lengths to keep you safe and alive. Your loved ones here in Fontaine will push for you, whether you like it or not. It’s clear to anyone with a pair of eyes and ears that you don’t value yourself enough. I’m not the first to say it, and I definitely won’t be the last either. Furina, your life does matter to people. Your happiness is contagious, and there is no benefit in wishing you were dead. No matter how torturous this attention from the Iudex may seem, you are loved, you are being loved, and your walls are too fortified to let any of that in.” His gaze softens, and the heavy solemnity releases from his lungs like the lid being taken off of a pressure cooker. Their eyes lock, and the skin under his eye forms a crack as if he were made of porcelain, if he were fragile and breaking under pressure. Waves of reassurance ebb and flow from the eyes he is staring into, just a few inches away.

Furina removes his hand from her shoulder and interlaces his fingers with his. A whisper of a smile tugs at the corners of her lips, which are still covered with translucent fabric. “Oh believe me, Wanderer… I’m fortunate enough to know that I am cared for, and I’ve been there with the Traveler and Paimon. If anyone knows how to be an annoying hero, it’s those two.” She gives his hand a squeeze, and her smile manifests itself. “...but I appreciate your insight, and I think I’m ready to go home for the night. This was nice, thank you. I… I treasure your friendship.”

“Then I won’t dilly dally about getting you home, Miss Furina.” He scoffs and rolls his eyes with a smirk as he guides her out of their darkened hiding spot. Laughing together, holding hands and interchanging jokes as they walk out together, TOGETHER. Facing the world, starting with this crowded dance floor, headed to the front entrance, the massive double doors that led them to this party in the first place. That is, until a certain blonde with a silver fairy comes into their line of sight. Into their path of walking.

~~~

me when I write a neuvifuri fic but I'm also a scararina shipper and left in some crumbs

anyway I accidentally predicted that Wanderer is just a caring dude that wants to keep others from feeling the same way he did and he's more than willing to be there even though he didn't have someone until it was too late

[the-path-to-redemption]

Serious question. With the direction of RWBY going doing you think their is some favoritism over the female villains than male villains?

Exhibit A: Adam and Ironwood treated badly even though they have justified motives.

Adam being an extremist with how mistreatment of Fanus, being a product of child slavery by a white privilege company, and joined WF that is equivalent to any modern radical group fighting for rights (Black Panthers). Got reduce to "crazy stalker bf, disregarded his fellow fanus comrades, became power hungry for no reason, and what he was suppose to be got dumped on Ilia".

Ironwood a dignified and selfless military leader. Willing to help team RWBY with anything, risked his life to evacuated the citizens when Becaon got under attack, and gave team RWBY extra training with a senior group that put his trust in him and vice versa. Got reduce to a "liar, manipulator, disingenuous, child shooter" even though he gave RWBY man signs to put his trust on him and the situation in Mantel could've ended differently.

Exhibit B: (Bit bias cause I really hate Cinder and wish the worse for her and I hope you get betrayed by Salem). When compare to Salem, Neo, and Cinder.

Salem the first women with magic and was locked in a tower Rapunzel style. Barging with the brothers to resurrected Ozpin and discovered the see humans as playthings and wanted to change the cycle. Started to get a little power hungry and when she found out Ozpin betrayed she tried to kill him AND ALSO KILLED HER DAUGHTERS WITH NO REMORSE. Responsible for the destruction of Mantel and Beacon and the deaths of civilians. Torture and manipulate Cinder to do her bidding knowing Cinder is disposable. Uses people with Silver Eyes as weapons.

Cinder a product of child slavery and trafficking. Abuse by her elder sisters and mother. Eventually killed out of revenge and killed her mentor and the only person that cared for her. Threatened Adam to join Salem or else she killed the Fanus. Was responsible for the death of Penny TWICE. Throws a tantrum when things don't do her way and gets owned by Watts. Betrays Neo to get the lamp to get her praise by Salem when next volume Salwm will torture her again for her handling of Mantle.

Neo is the partner in crime with Roman. Manipulate by Cinder to kill Ruby when in reality Cinder is really at fault since she hired them. Emotionally Manipulates Ruby in her weakest state to commit sucide and use her deceased friends to her advantage. Realize that her whole goal of revenge is pointless and she never think this through. Get used as a puppet by the cat forcing her to talk. Gets her happy ending and stay in wonderland.

Tell me out of the two groups who gets love by the fandom and which gets hate?

I just think that RT is bad at writing for this show-

Long Post Ahead

For the writer's side on this, it's clear that they simply do not know how to process the nuances of morally gray characters like Ironwood, that's why he was straight up villainized by them. As for Adam, it's just because they're racist. That's it.

The nuances of both of these characters were beyond the scope of understanding that CRWBY were willing to explore, or else they will be confronted with the fact that they're racist as fuck, and their stupid fucking pride about being rightfully criticized prevents this show from actually improving. People wanted Blake and Ruby to talk? Ham-fist it in. People want the criticism about how the world of Remnant was written to be heard? Let's have this cat character mock them via sarcastic inquiries about said critiques on said world.

As for the FNDM? Yeah, there is a blatant disconnect when it comes to atrocities committed by female villains versus male villains in the fans to the point that it treks into full-on bigotry at times.

This isn't to say that the writers didn't fuck up on both, oh no. Salem is a boring ass main villain, James got fucked over, Cinder is a nuisance, and Adam got butchered. All of their villains aside from Tyrian and Watts suck ass, and Watts also got killed off! By Cinder!

But the FNDM has a habit of disregarding abuse when it's a male character being abused by his female confidante (Ozma, Sun, Ren, and Whitley), but are willing to completely demonize a morally gray male character like James in V7 when he would not agree with Ruby's plan. WHICH IS COMPLETELY FINE IN A WRITING STAND POINT.

The RWBY FNDM, to me, has been dragged along by a shitty lie made by RT that "this show is a feminist show because it has female main characters" and are now desperately trying to keep up that lie themselves, even though RWBY has stopped being about the girls for a while now. There is no passion behind their characters, it's all for Jaune. But admitting that will mean admitting RWBY is bad and not feminist, so they lash out at people who rightfully criticize the show and demonize the characters they don't like despite their reasons being stupid as hell.

I've seen people making ableist fucking comments to James, denying that Adam was a slave, and calling Ozpin a groomer. These same people would woobify Cinder, Salem or Neo all the while, even though all of these characters has all done terrible things to our protagonists. Keep up the same energy for both or stfu.

Sorry for the rant. This is just a topic that I really despise because people would act like rabid hyenas, which will turn into harassment which is something I do not want on my blog. But yeah, there is a favortism towards the female villains by the FNDM, but CRWBY hates all of their characters aside from Jaune equally.

[aihoshiino]

What are your thoughts on how onk is handling ruby recently

So I've been rattling my brains about this since long before this ask – since the chapter 123 leaks dropped, if I'm honest and I think I'm at a place where my feelings are "I understand why these choices are being made, I just don't like that these are the choices they went with".

(I kind of talked about this elsewhere last week, by coincidence, so sorry to anyone about to see me repeat myself LOL)

As someone who really, REALLY loves Ruby, it feels like there's been a consistent failure to properly center her and give her focus and interesting things to do since around the start of Tokyo Blade. Black hoshigan Ruby (as I've mentioned in a previous post) was a really interesting and exciting opportunity to dig into Ruby's trauma and darker feelings that OnK is comparatively quieter on. But with the benefit of hindsight now that the arc is over, it's clear that the whole thing was just a plot cul-de-sac - if I were feeling particularly uncharitable, I would go as far as to call it filler to waste time until Aqua was back in revenge mode. She might not ping back to white stars until 123 but black hoshigan Ruby essentially ceases to be relevant once Aqua is back in the picture until she can be used to serve his arc again.

And the frustrating thing is - I was so, SO fucking excited to see how Ruby was being handled in the start of the movie arc! It felt like we were building up to a really fantastic examination of Ruby's relationship with all three of her mothers, and the way toxic motherhood in general trickles down and poisons someone for long after they're out of the environment of abuse. The incredibly strong and vivid depictions of Ruby literally triggering and retraumatizing herself by engaging with material that depicted Ai's own abuse and the way it dragged back memories of her own abuse and abandonment were so powerful and so scary - her pain absolutely overflowed out of every single page and the care and tenderness with which it was depicted made me feel so deeply for Ruby. This poor, poor girl who has been in so much pain for so long and has done her best to be happy and strong but is at last reaching her human breaking point - it was so fucking good!

The arc we were promised for Ruby at the outset of the movie arc was, no joke, exactly the sort of thing I had been hoping and praying for Akasaka to do for her ever since I got back into the series in April. I really, genuinely thought this was finally going to be Ruby's time to shine and achieve some meaningful healing and catharsis.

And then the arc completely switches tracks to be about Aqua instead and all we've gotten from Ruby since is incest bait and her simping over her brother.

To be clear, I am 100% aware I am being disingenuous here and that there is way more going on than my eyerolling dismissal of it, but I'm trying to get across how it feels for me as a Ruby enjoyer VS how my Themes And Characterization And Narrative brain logically understands what is going on.

It absolutely completely makes sense for Ruby to be behaving this way right now. Gorou was the first and only person in her short life as Sarina to make her feel safe and valued and cared for and having the miracle of their reunion granted to her after she was sure she'd lost him forever and just as she was at emotional and mental rock bottom? That shit was GUARANTEED to turn her brain into soup and Ruby developing confusedly romantic and unhealthy feelings for Aqua vis-a-vis projecting Gorou onto him when she is so desperately in need of comfort and support is maybe not pretty or flattering, but it feels honestly, authentically weird and messy and uncomfortable. Oshi no Ko's willingness to portray character relationships with enough of that honesty to just let them be weird and fucked up and icky and unhealthy sometimes is something I really, really appreciate about it.

My issue is not that this plot point has happened to begin with - my issue is with how it's been framed. This is partially exacerbated by the manga's schedule getting FUBAR'd just after this reveal dropped and thus forcing us to stew in what I imagine is still the relatively early stages of this new status quo for maybe longer than intended, but we have gotten little to no serious examination of how Ruby actually feels about any of this. Almost every interaction the twins have had since this reveal dropped has been incest bait jokes. The fact that Ruby was in the middle of a massively overdue bit of character development that was finally all about her and her feelings only for that to get thrown to one side in favour of her being all uwu oniichansensei and being treated like a comic relief character is just so, so deeply insulting and betrays such a huge lack of respect for Ruby and her feelings.

The relative shallowness and childishness of them is, I think, intentional and accepting this uncritically as yummy ship bait is clown behaviour - we are playing around in this space specifically to soften us up for when the twins finally have an open and honest confrontation about this, but all that means is that for the time being, I am being asked to laugh at and vicariously enjoy Ruby's unhealthy, fucked up feelings born from her deep trauma and to be perfectly frank that just leaves me feeling fucking insulted.

As a survivor of the little sister incest anime boom and a fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena, I simply have no patience for a series that purports to take itself and its characters seriously then turns around and plays sibling incest for nudgewink laughs and ship bait, especially when it has derailed and, in the short term, superseded and ruined what was shaping to be an exciting and deeply emotional character arc for a character desperately in need of focus.